Luiz Felipe Scolari is everything that Sven-Goran Eriksson is not. Scolari, the Brazilian who is the head coach of Portugal, is demonstrative, three-dimensional, and single-minded.

He is one reason why England should worry when the two national teams meet in the heat of Gelsenkirchen on Saturday afternoon. He is one reason why England will do well to win the third quarter-final match of this 18th Fifa World Cup.

Scolari was the first choice of the Football Association to take over from Eriksson as the head coach of England. Scolari did not want the job, citing potential media intrusion as his chief reason. In truth, Scolari would not have relished the mechanical nature of northern European football. He likes to work with men who play with their hearts, not their heads.

"I don't want this situation involving England because, in two days during which I was not even the coach, and had never even agreed to anything, my life was invaded," Scolari said of his decision not to take over as the head coach of England.

"There are 20 reporters outside my house now. If that is part of another culture, it is not part of my culture."

Eriksson has tolerated the English media, but it helps to cushion the blow that he earns in excess of £4 million a year. Scolari earns less with Portugal but if it bothers him, he is not saying.

He is the most successful manager in the world at the moment. He led Brazil to victory in the World Cup final four years ago, led Portugal to the Euro 2004 final two years ago, and has created the strongest Portugal team since 1966. He might look like an English gentleman from a cheap 1940s movie but his attitude is Latin, with a bit of European steal thrown in for good measure.

Scolari could not be more contrasting with Eriksson, who seems to earn a fortune merely for saying nothing and doing little. He is supposed to be the great thinker of English football, except that he seems to achieve less the more introspective he becomes. He has, so far, proved unable to turn the best collection of English players since 1970 into a truly great England team. That is some achievement.

Whereas Eriksson is reserved and composed, Scolari is gregarious and edgy. The two teams personify their managers. When they met in the quarter-finals of Euro 2004 in Lisbon, they produced a memorable match, and one can expect the same in Gelsenkirchen.

But this is a Portugal team like no other. When Scolari took over as the manager of Brazil, the purists complained because he was seen as the man who would diminish the country's creative brilliance. But Scolari won the World Cup by merging Latin flamboyance with European organization.

On their way to winning the 2002 World Cup, Brazil defeated England in the quarter-finals. It was the day, in the big heat of Shizuoka, that the ten men of Brazil taught the 11 men of England how to play keep-ball. It was the day that the enthusiasm of one man overshadowed the reservations of the other.

Scolari has now won 11 successive World Cup matches (seven with Brazil in 2002 and now four with Portugal in 2006) and he has masterminded victories over England in successive tournaments. He has almost become Eriksson's nemesis.

But history will count for nothing in Gelsenkirchen.

Man for man, England are superior to Portugal, even if Portugal do have the better manager. Portugal and England emerged from easy first-round groups but only Portugal needed to be on top form to win in the second round. Whereas England struggled to put out Ecuador, Portugal worked hard to defeat Holland.

There is a perception that Eriksson is too loyal to drop players like David Beckham who are all fame and nothing else. Scolari has a track record in standing up to big-name players who, for whatever reason, no longer fit into a system.

Scolari has said that it is teams who win matches, but one might argue that Eriksson played a part in England's defeat to Brazil in 2002. With the scores level at half-time, and England still reeling after conceding an equalizer, Eriksson did little to inspire confidence.

"What we needed was Winston Churchill," one player said. "What we got was Iain Duncan Smith."

Scolari did not need to intervene. He could already see that England were defeated and that Brazil were heading into the semi-finals.

In Gelsenkirchen on Saturday, Portugal will begin with an edge. His name is Luiz Felipe Scolari.